Smith was publicly reamed after he said he doesn't "like Michael Jackson" in a video Lambert uploaded but quickly deleted. Many pointed out the hypocrisy of a white artist who sings soul music, a genre originally popularized by American black artists, disparaging one of the most iconic and prolific black artists of all time.

One of those critics was TJ Jackson, the nephew of Michael Jackson and an artist in his own right, who called Smith's comment “ignorant, disrespectful and arrogant" in a Twitter post.

"Don't disparage a soul pioneer when they helped paved the way for you and your music," he tweeted, directly at Smith.

He further laid into the British performer, writing, "What bothers me is [Sam] is a popular SOUL artist...for HIM to disrespect ANY classic soul Motown/Stax/etc artist publicly is arrogant. Period."